CHINESE SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIES: COMMUNICATION KEY FEATURES FROM A BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE Estrategias de marketing y comunicación en medios sociales chinos: características clave de comunicación des- de una perspectiva de negocio Xia He and Rafael Pedraza-Jiménez Xia He is a PhD student in the Department of Communication at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and a researcher in the program of doctors training from China Scholarship Council. http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4092-0621 [email protected] Rafael Pedraza-Jiménez is a professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. He develops his teaching and research activities in the Digital and Interactive Formats Area and as a member of the DigiDoc Research Group. http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6918-6910 [email protected] Departamento de Comunicación, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Roc Boronat, 138. 08018 Barcelona, España Abstract Some of the most attractive economies are located in emerging markets. In this sense, China is one of the most attractive markets in the world. The Web, especially social media, is a platform that can be used to penetrate these markets. Yet, many local and multinational enterprises, particularly the latter, know little about the relationship between Chinese social media and Chinese digital consumers. In this paper the unique Chinese social media landscape is introduced, and the profiles of Chinese digital customers are presented with the aim of informing enterprises about the key features of Chinese social media strategies. In addition, the predominant use of Chinese social media marketing is elucidated and analyzed based on several case studies. We then highlight the challenges for both local and multinational corporations when they are involved in Chinese social media marketing. We discuss current trends in Chinese social media, including cross-platform cooperation and integrated social media, group buying, and mobile social media. Finally, we offer recommendations for companies that wish to successfully engage with Chinese consumers through social media. Keywords Social media; Social media strategies; Social media marketing; Word-of-mouth; Social marketing plan; Business communica- tion strategies; Chinese digital consumer; China. Resumen Algunas de las economías y mercados más atractivos se encuentran en los países emergentes. Este es el caso de China, que posee uno de los mercados más atrayentes a nivel internacional. La Web, y especialmente los medios sociales, han demos- trado ser una herramienta clave para penetrar en este mercado. Este artículo describe las principales características tanto de las plataformas sociales chinas como de sus usuarios. Lo hace con un enfoque corporativo, con la intención de dar a co- nocer a las empresas aspectos clave para sus estrategias de marketing y comunicación online. En este sentido, se mencionan las oportunidades que generan la integración de medios sociales y comercio electrónico, la compra en grupo, o tener pre- sencia en plataformas sociales adaptadas a dispositivos móviles. Además, se describen diferentes casos de estudio, todos ellos campañas de marketing de éxito, en los medios sociales chinos. El artículo concluye con algunas recomendaciones para aquellas empresas que deseen desarrollar una campaña de marketing en medios sociales de China. Manuscript received on 08-12--2014 Approved on 18-02-2015 200 El profesional de la información, 2015, marzo-abril, v. 24, n. 2. eISSN: 1699-2407 Chinese social media strategies: Communication key features from a business perspective Palabras clave Medios sociales; Estrategias en medios sociales; Marketing en medios sociales; Estrategias de comunicación empresarial; Boca-oído; Consumidores digitales chinos; China. He, Xia; Pedraza-Jiménez, Rafael (2015). “Chinese social media strategies: Communication key features from a business perspective”. El profesional de la información, v. 24, n. 2, pp. 200-209. http://dx.doi.org/10.3145/epi.2015.mar.14 1. Introduction Gupta (2011) forecasted that revenue from advertising, ga- mes, and subscriptions from global social media channels Social media (video sharing sites, wikis, photo sharing sites, would hit $29 billion by 2015; that is more than four times social network sites, microblogs, etc.) has already become a the amount from all of 2010. So, it seems that we are in part of daily life for many Internet users in the world. a new dynamic era of digital engagement and social media With the rapid development of social media a lot of corpo- plays an important role in this context. More and more com- rations use it to their advantage for their brands, services, panies are using social media applications to collect positive and public relations. At the same time, the public makes the and negative information about their products and services most of social media for daily life including online purcha- and to engage with their target audience. All these stra- sing, news reading, product information searching, and for tegies improve their brands’ awareness and market share many other services and forms of entertainment. (Abedniya; Mahmouei, 2010; Culnan; McHugh; Zubillaga, 2010; Moran; Gossieaux, 2010). The concept ‘Web 2.0’ was first presented in the O’Reilly It’s worth pointing out that in the context of globalization Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004 (Graham, 2005). Since the most attractive economies are located in emerging mar- then, Web 2.0 has led the evolution of social media (Kaplan; kets. China, as one of the most appealing markets, has been Haenlein, 2010). Currently, there are various social media drawing the attention of local and multinational enterprises, definitions; one of the most popular is: especially the latter with a focus on occidental corporations ‘Social media is a group of Internet-based applications that in China. According to the latest report on Internet deve- build on the ideological and technological foundations of lopment in China from China Internet Network Information Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user Center (CNNIC), Chinese Internet users’ numbers hit 618 generated content’ (Kaplan; Haenlein, 2010).’ million by the end of December 2013. The Internet penetra- tion rate was 45.8%. In the context of the enterprises these In his e-book, What is social media?, Mayfield (2008) indi- data show that 83.2% of the enterprises used the Internet cates social media has several features including participa- to conduct official business, 23.5% to perform online sales, tion, openness, and community; and six types of platforms and 20.9% to implement marketing and promotion (CNNIC, —social networks, blogs, wikis, podcasts, forums, content 2014a). communities, and microblogging. Kietzmann et al. (2011) describe seven functional blocks of social media: identity, This article begins by describing China’s unique social me- conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, dia landscape by reviewing its historical roots and drawing and groups. comparisons with its Western counterparts. In order to help local and multinational en- terprises better understand the key features of Chinese social me- dia the profiles of Chinese digital consumers are also presented and categorized into several different groups. Afterwards, the predomi- nant uses of Chinese social media marketing such as cross-platforms communication, group buying, and mobile social media marketing are discussed in several case studies. Moreover, this paper demonstra- tes the challenges that local and multinational enterprises may encounter while engaging with Chinese social media consumers. Finally, conclusions are drawn and some recommendations are made for marketers to formulate suitable http://www1.cnnic.cn Chinese social media strategies. El profesional de la información, 2015, marzo-abril, v. 24, n. 2. eISSN: 1699-2407 201 Xia He and Rafael Pedraza-Jiménez 2. China’s social media landscape Popular global social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube dominate the occidental regions and several Asian countries. But most are inaccessible to the public in Chi- na. A brief summary of the history of Chinese social media is of importance to more fully un- derstand the unique and complex Chinese so- cial media landscape. The first bulletin board system (BBS) was built in 1994 and Chinese netizens quickly began to engage within online forums and communities; one such example was the famous BBS Xicihu- tong (xici.net). In the beginning of the 1990s computers were luxury products to the ordi- http://www.weibo.com/login.php?lang=en-us nary people of China—there were few Internet users. The real Internet boom in China began with the emergence of instant messaging (IM) with QQ, which was launched by Tencent in 1999. Millions of young people and college students started to chat with friends, or to make new friends, via the QQ platform, which was simi- lar to ICQ (I seek you). BlogChina (blogchina. com), another revolutionary tool, was released in 2002 by founder Fangxingdong. In addition to IMing, Chinese netizens were enthusiastic about blogging, social network sites (SNS), mi- croblogging platforms, and other social media applications. Relevant examples include the at- tractive social networking service Kaixinwang (kaixin001.com) in 2008; the popular micro- blogging channel Sina Weibo (d.weibo.com) in 2009; the convenient location-based servi- http://jiepang.com ce (LBS) Jiepang (jiepang.com) and group bu- ying site Meituan (meituan.com) in 2010; and the fascinating mobile app Wechat platform (Weixin in China) in 2011. Nowadays,